For the remainder of my 12-4 cycle, I tweaked some things on the blog design, and talked with a friend online. is currently sleeping biphasically — one main sleep (4.5h) and a nap (1.5h). We’re going to stay in touch throughout my adaptation process, and presumably afterwards as well. During that time I also read some articles, and… Hm. I remember feeling as though time was passing fairly slowly, but I’m not sure now exactly what I was doing the whole time.

Perhaps it is all just my own bias wanting me to think that I’m still functioning very efficiently. Hard to say.

My naps had all been pretty good until the 3:30 one, when I just couldn’t get comfortable… I was laying in the same shavasana position as all of my previous naps, but my limbs would just feel like they were in the wrong place. I just couldn’t get to sleep. I’m hoping that future naps will not be so restless. For all of yesterday’s naps, I actually slept, although I don’t know what state I was in.

The Yoga position "Shavasana"

On the subject of Yoga, I’m planning to start doing a half-hour or so every day. I’m trying to model my adaptation period quite closely on what I’ve observed on Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development Blog. This includes:

Becoming vegetarian. I haven’t eaten meat since last Thursday. Apparently, herbivores need less sleep and are better able to adjust to changes in sleep schedules.

Walking for an hour. Immediately after waking at 4am, I went on an hour-long walk around Columbia Lake (link shows my route in Google Maps) which was really refreshing and just generally pleasant.

Yoga. I’ve been practising Yoga intermittently for several years, but with extra time I’m definitely going to do more of it.

I may also do other things he did, such as cook things, although I don’t know if that specifically ought to help immensely.

I’m going to do some schoolwork etc now, nap again before 8, do more, nap again, eat lunch, go to class!

So far my mental status is fine. I feel tired but not excessively. My energy is at a stable although slightly below average level. I feel like I could sleep now if I wanted to, but I don’t feel like I absolutely have to.

Boom.

Malcolm

PS: I’m chatting with a friend at the moment, and I made reference to the conversation I had with the other friend during my 12-4 cycle as being “last night”, even though it was just 2 hours prior. Interesting, eh? Factors that could’ve caused me to divide the day that way could include…

It’s now light out.

I actually went for a long outing after I got up at 4.

I had a conversation with someone in real life after my walk.

The friend I was talking to “last night” proceeded to go to bed after our conversation.

As those of you who know me in real life know, I have recently decided to undertake a transition to the Uberman Sleep Schedule. That link will tell you most of what there is to know about Uberman. If you don’t like reading, the following diagram somewhat summarizes it.

Circle is 24h. Red is asleep. Black is awake.

Basically, rather than sleeping ~8h at night, I’m going to be sleeping for 20-25 minutes every 4h. At first, the body violently resists this, because it does not know how to get any REM sleep while only sleeping in 20 minute stints. After a couple of weeks, though, the body can adjust to this and then actually becomes more rested since it actually gets 2 full hours of REM every 24h versus only about 1.5h REM on a regular sleep schedule.

I’ve given this past day (June 27th, 2011) the name “Day Zero”. I had a full night’s sleep last night—aside from my roommate’s phone waking me earlier than I’d intended—but I started my naps at noon, and have just finished my fourth (my midnight nap).

My nap schedule is: 11:30, 3:30, 7:30 (am & pm).
I’ll post abut Uberman at least daily for the first week or two, then after that it will depend on my state. My hope is that polyphasic sleeping will become my normal state (or close to it) by then and there won’t be many more anomalies to remark.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment! I have plenty of time now, so I should be able to answer it 😛